Antarctica

Today, on 7th February, thousands of Dutch school children are demonstrating against climate change, missing a day of school in the process. The pupils are supporting the Youth for Climate NL campaign on Instagram, which was launched by school children at the Dalton school in The Hague. The campaign website, which invites donations to pay for banners, urges teenagers to ‘play truant for our future’. The youth wants the Dutch government to take more action against climate change.

This Research Guide is intended as a starting point for legal research on the Polar Regions. It covers a wide variety of topics relating to the Arctic, the Antarctic, Spitsbergen and Greenland. These include: regional and international governance issues, peace and security, dispute settlement, climate change, environmental protection, territorial claims and border disputes, law of the sea, exploration, exploitation of oil, gas and minerals, maritime navigation, and human rights issues, such as autonomy and self-determination, the rights of indigenous peoples to land and natural resources, their cultural rights and cultural heritage. As climate change has serious impact on the Polar Regions, international law has an important role to play, now and in the future.

Whales, large, mysterious, intelligent, and endangered. Has any mammal inspired such romantic images of the sea and love for nature as much as the whale, yet aroused such controversy in global environmental conservation? King of the Seas, symbol of the environmental movement, meat and oil for commercial whaling. Over the years, large-scale commercial whaling has depleted a number of whale populations to a significant extent, resulting in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) issuing a moratorium on whaling in 1986. Some recent developments will illustrate the highly controversial nature of whaling.

Postage stamps were originally used as denotation of the prepayment of postal charges. Back in the 19th century stamps issued usually depicted heads of state, crests or flags and occasionally commemorated an event. In the 1920s this changed, when governments began to realize that postage stamps, by conveying cultural or political messages, could also be […]

Tourism is an important source of income, prosperity and happiness for many people, but not everywhere. The increasing number of cruiseships, loaded with tourists, heading for Antarctica threatens the fragile ecosystem, habitat of many animals, in this region. Tourism to the frozen continent has increased nearly ten-fold in the last 15 years.

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Intervention

Article 2 under 7 of the Charter of the United Nations is clear in case a recognised state is subject to an intervention: “Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state”. This article contains a codification of the territorial integrity of a State principle.